A Journal of the Arts

Three Poems by Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué

Endeavors

I get a dreadful worryabout blue lights, money, the mailand this feeling sits in me a long timelike pear slices in their juiceas my friend tells me a storyof all his recent endeavorswhich somehow gets to rumors of the wendigobut it doesn’t get worsein fact I get to picturingtime spent with my friendpicturing the time we’re spending nowand I tell himto start the story overbecause I wasn’t really listening

Raise

I’m worth muchmore than this seed bagtorn and spilled ontoK streetsure, an upsidedown junglein facta rumor is goingaround that I cannotgrow anythingoutside of my handsthe pale pleasant sky handlethe deep blackthat must be inthe center of a seedI give a boxof utensilsto my brotherbecause I knowthat he can raise a family

Over the Desk

a comely pile of foamat the top of my stairsthat has cometo cover mewhat can’t it explainthe knot at the baseof my backno it can explain thatthe movie of amagnoliathe letter about mudslidesit can only startto slither downthe kisswe tradedover thedeskyou said I wasbeing generousin kissing youno it can explain that

Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué is a gay, Latino Leo living in Chicago. He is the author of Losing Miami (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2019),Jazzercise is a Language (The Operating System, 2018), and Oil and Candle (Timeless, Infinite Light, 2016). He is also the author of chapbooks on gay sex, Cher, the Legend of Zelda, and anxious bilingualism. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago.